If You Can Handle That

Sometimes there is value in making things very difficult for yourself.

There are two potential upsides to enduring a very difficult environment. If you manage to maximize both of those upsides, then the trade is usually worth it.

Upside #1: Personal development. If the difficulty of the environment is proportional to how much you’ll learn in that environment, that’s a powerful asset. For example, imagine you want to learn about the restaurant industry. You have two options for an entry-level role – one is a chill, somewhat slow mom-and-pop restaurant and the other is a high-intensity restaurant that’s part of an upscale chain. One job is harder than the other – perhaps gruelingly so. Both jobs will probably pay similar rates at entry level. But if you’ll genuinely learn 5x as much, 5x faster in the harder job, then that’s a major boon.

Upside #2: Reputation. If everyone knows that the environment you came from is extraordinarily difficult, then your successes there count for more than similar successes in an easier environment. If you came finished in first place in the 100m dash, then it matters whether we’re talking about the Olympics or your local neighborhood fun-run day. Going back to the restaurant example, working for Gordon Ramsey comes with it the well-known reputation that it’s a crucible, so success in that environment improves your reputation. But if your boss or environment isn’t well-known, then you might just be enduring all that for no real extra benefit.

So, add those two together. Is the environment one where the intensity of learning matches the intensity of necessary effort, and does everybody know it? If so, then it’s very likely worth the effort to succeed there in the long run. If one or the other isn’t true, then it might not be. And if neither is true – if it’s harder but you don’t learn more, and nobody on the outside has any concept of how hard it was there relative to other options – then it definitely isn’t worth it over your other options.

Putting yourself in a hard situation deliberately can have huge upsides. But make sure it does before you do it!